do YOU eat your exercise calories?

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  • tiedye
    tiedye Posts: 331 Member
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    No, I don't. The times I do are when I am going out to a restaurant or there's a family party or something where I know without my exercise cals I'll be way over my daily limit.
  • o0amber0o
    o0amber0o Posts: 5
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    If I'm hungry I'll eat some of them back, if I'm not I won't.

    This is how I see it. Since it's a lifestyle change, I need to let my body tell me when to eat, not my emotions.

    I lost 30 pounds at the beginning of the year with a strict 1200 calorie diet with exercise and it worked well for me. Like someone else mentioned I never heard or thought of "eating back" the exercise calories until I came on here. To me that's what you would do if you were maintaining your weight, which is not where I'm at yet.

    However, I do use them as a safety net, if I'm hungry I'm going to eat!
  • clubbybear
    clubbybear Posts: 30 Member
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    Yes, I eat my exercise calories. Maybe not all of them, but most of them. I'm down 22 lbs in 9 weeks, so It's working for me.
  • sheepysaccount
    sheepysaccount Posts: 608 Member
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    Just a few of them. I don't really exercise a lot so it's really not that many extra calories. But I use them to have something I shouldn't :P Like a little treat to reward me for actually doing something.
  • keola64
    keola64 Posts: 207 Member
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    Aloha my friend,I have to say eating your exercise calories can variety due to different goals ,as I am trying now to gain lean mule mass I try to always eat my exercise calories,however when my goal was weight loss I didn't eat my exercise calories I usually used supplamental protein sources to force my body to have to use my excess fat as a fee/energy source without the side effect of loss of muscle mass as which is common with low calorie diets,by doing so I managed to lose close to 100 pounds in 7months ,the hard part is feeling the lack of motivation due to fatigue,but keeping a high level of protein will help all you need to do is push past the feeling of lack of energy and push through your exercise routine,keep your fats & sugar low ,keep hydrated,and get some protein powder,like whey isolate protein for pre & or after workouts,casein protein for slow releasing protein especially at nite to help prevent muscle loss so as your body burns calories even when asleep especially after a day of hard cardio only fat us lost,its a hard path I chose for my diet but if u can follow this it will work ....aloha Keola
  • kaetra
    kaetra Posts: 442 Member
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    If I'm not hungry I don't eat my exercise calories. If I am hungry I will eat some, but I don't like to eat them all because exercise calories are super easy to over-estimate.

    I don't have a Heart Rate Monitor, and even if I did my heart rate is artificially lowered by blood pressure meds - so, an HRM that is guessing calories burned based on a heart rate would be guessing even more innaccurately for me.

    I refer to a couple different exercise calorie sources to try make my exercise calories as accurate as possible, but so much of excercise calories burned is pure guesswork that in the end I don't trust the exercise calorie number all that much.
  • Vegan_Chick
    Vegan_Chick Posts: 474 Member
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    Rarely. I eat about 1400 cals a day, sometimes 1500. I never eat back my exercise calories cause that's extra weight loss. I have never heard anyone say anything about eating them back until i joined MFP. The whole point of exercising is to increase your calorid deficit. starvation mode only happens if you consume less than 1200 calories. Consume. you can burn thousands of calories a day and not hit starvation mode. The contestants on Biggest Loser dont eat back their calories, nor do the participants on Extreme Makeover weight loss edition, or any other weight loss show i've ever seen. I've been losing weight steadily, rarely plateau, and have tons of energy. I read books about fat loss, not gimmick books but solid information books that talk about working hard and having to eat right, no easy ways to lose weight, and none of those ever say to eat back your exercise calories. If that's what works for people that's great but it's not what works for me.
    I agree and I'm gonna stop entering my exercise because it makes me want to eat more
  • jchester71
    jchester71 Posts: 124 Member
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    I never eat back exercise calories. I usually try to stick around 1200-1400 cal a day (below my MFP goal). I personally suspect the MFP net calorie calculation and eating back the calories has more to do with legal concerns than fitness ones. I briefly ran it past my wife's nutritionist/trainer/PT and he said its nonsense (which jives with the vast majority of what I have read).
  • jchester71
    jchester71 Posts: 124 Member
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    not eating exercise cals can put you in starvation mode which will stall your weight loss as will slow down your metabolism. i recently did an experiment of eating them back, check it out here if you'd like:http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/BeautyFromPain

    Everybody should go through the exercise of asking an MD about "starvation mode" and see what they say. Very divergent from a lot of the MFP common wisdom.
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
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    i definitely do. I'm only 4'11 so I'd be eating 1200 calories a day if I didn't. I exercise like a beast to eat 2000 calories daily and maintain/lose really really slowly.
  • Akjenn89
    Akjenn89 Posts: 265 Member
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    not eating exercise cals can put you in starvation mode which will stall your weight loss as will slow down your metabolism. i recently did an experiment of eating them back, check it out here if you'd like:http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/BeautyFromPain

    Thanks for posting this. Cool results.

    And in response to OP.. I eat back my exercise calories.
  • gsager
    gsager Posts: 977 Member
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    Yes, I eat back my exercise calories and so far I'm losing a little faster than I was when I was just eating a couple hundred of them.
  • stevwil41
    stevwil41 Posts: 608 Member
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    Initially I did not. Now that I'm closer to my goal I do. I'm not losing a lot each week now but I'm close enough that I'm content with how I look and feel so I'm coasting through the last 10 to 15 lbs.
  • bmqbonnie
    bmqbonnie Posts: 836 Member
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    Yes I'm hungry enough as it is! If I'm like 100-200 cals under and I'm not hungry for once I take it as a good day and let things be. More than that and I will have something extra to eat. I'm pretty active all day though.
  • JeSuisPrest
    JeSuisPrest Posts: 2,005 Member
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    Yes!!!
  • Victoriav99
    Victoriav99 Posts: 260 Member
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    Sometimes...Only if I am feeling hungry. If I'm not hungry then NO I don't.
  • starwhisperer
    starwhisperer Posts: 367
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    Nope, on occasion I will dip into them when I NEED some cheesecake or something :) But for the most part I don't need them, I am not hungry, and I am losing at a normal pace for what I have to lose.
  • ambermichon
    ambermichon Posts: 404 Member
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    YES and it works!
  • ivikatasha
    ivikatasha Posts: 192 Member
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    I eat only a little of them back, losing at a steady rate of 2lbs a week so far. It is working nicely :smile: Normally I am not hungry enough to more anyway.
  • surfrgrl1
    surfrgrl1 Posts: 1,464 Member
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    Yes, I eat them back, my exercise calories are not that high. I am aiming for the 'net' of 1500 per day. It works for me.

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